New Heavens and a New Earth
13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
The fire is not the end of the story — what the promise actually holds is a replaced world, defined by who lives there.
But — and the conjunction carries the whole paragraph — what the promise holds is heavens and an earth made new. Everything in verses 10 to 12 was demolition, and demolition is not the promise; the promise is what is built afterward.
The expectation is not new with Peter. Isaiah has God creating new heavens and a new earth, with the former things not remembered Isaiah 65:17, and Revelation shows them arriving Revelation 21:1. The letter is quoting a hope, not inventing one.
What defines the new world is named in a single relative clause: in which righteousness dwells. Not its architecture, its geography, or its permanence — its inhabitant. The verb is the ordinary one for taking up residence, so righteousness is described as a settled resident rather than a visitor, which is precisely what the present earth is not.
Verse 14 makes the application personal and uses the vocabulary of chapter 2 in reverse. Those teachers were spots and blemishes at the feast 2 Peter 2:13; the readers are to be found without defect and blameless, and at peace. What a person expects shapes what they are found to be.
settled What this mark means